OPEN ZIGGURAT: The public will get a...

OPEN ZIGGURAT: The public will get a chance to shake hands with the huge, faceless bureaucracies of the federal government when the Chet Holifield Federal Building in Laguna Niguel holds an open house Wednesday. Most of the federal agencies housed in the Ziggurat, as it is known, will be represented with displays and exhibits. . . . One certain highlight: a tour of the National Archives. Says spokeswoman Suzanne Dewberry: “People think we’re just another federal agency. But there are remarkable things kept here for posterity.”

DIGGING DEEP: Many of the relatives of Japanese held in detention camps during World War II have been searching for details in newly released documents in those federal archives in Laguna Niguel. They have lots of company. Last year 27,500 visitors came to search through old records. . . . The archives have census information dating back to 1790. “We have a lot of people who want to open up their own personal closets,” says Dewberry. “Some look up slave schedules and others try to find their fathers from the Korea and Vietnam wars.”

FAMILY THING: It’s no surprise to Santa Ana motorcycle officer Paul Hayes that his 8-year-old son Jared wants to be a cop. Hayes’ own father is a police detective in New York. Hayes’ grandfather was a cop. And so was his great-grandfather. . . . Says Hayes: “My son knows what he wants to be, just like I did at his age.” Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton says Hayes’ heritage is rare: “I’ve been around 25 years and I can’t think of anybody else who goes back more than two generations.”

DID YOU FEEL THAT? Not everybody feels the mysterious vibration going on in Costa Mesa. But enough have felt it--and complained about it--that officials are taking it seriously. Most think they know the cause: the pumping station at the city’s new reservoir. . . . The Mesa Consolidated Water District has sent board members to homes to check it out.